For some useful insights into petrol consumption and prices, see this Tigerhawk post - and don’t miss his link to the inflation-adjusted USA Gasoline Price History.
It seems to me that there are a number of true statements about the current high cost of gasoline and American public policy:
1. Gasoline prices are high by historical standards, but not as high as they were during the Carter years.
2. Someday, perhaps in the near future, gasoline prices will be higher than they are today.
3. Someday, perhaps in the near future, gasoline prices will be lower than they are today.
4. Higher fuel prices have an impact on the economy, but because we produce an additional dollar of GDP with a lot less energy today than in 1979, high fuel prices have much less impact than they once did.
…
8. A huge part of our gasoline consumption is structural. Housing developments are built miles from essential businesses like grocery stores, liquor stores and coffee shops. In many suburbs even in dense places like New Jersey you have to drive a couple of miles to get to the first retail business. To a great degree, we have built high gasoline consumption into the political decisions that we have made at the town zoning board.
I am writing all of this from the bench in front of the Tupper Lake, New York public library, which is the only WiFi hotspot for miles. I had to drive 5.4 miles to get here, and will now drive 5.4 miles back. Blogging takes gasoline, too.
On point #8, that structural component is a consequence of both the general absence of urban planning and the political dominance of developers. More Walmarts, more concrete is a Good Thing for developers and for economic growth.
It is theoretically possible to achieve similar results, without the transport inefficiency and endless concrete sprawl, by investing pre-development in mass transit infrastructure to lead the growth to suit the planned development. The obvious political problem with that utopian concept is that it requires advance thinking and spending - very challenging for democracies. France appears to have had some success in such pre-development transport infrastructure investing - how it was achieved politically is an open research topic.
0 Responses to “High gasoline prices, SUVs, conservation, and so forth”